Beating a Dead Horse: Should Berkman be a LHB?

There is no question in my mind that Berkman would bat worse against LHP if he quit switch hitting. He has been hitting this way since his youth. I view it as a fantasy to think he would hit as well if he changes at this point. You can’t change muscle memory, developed over 30 years, in the latter half of his career and expect anything but bad things to happen. Berkman, himself, has said he doesn’t think he would be able to stand in against LHP if he was forced to hit RH. He said it would look too strange to see the pitch coming from that direction.

One of the reasons Berkman’s split seems so large is because he hits so well against RHP. For example, Willie McCovey’s career split vs. LHP (.776) is actually lower than Berkman’s, but Berkman’s split seems broader because Berkman destroys RHP better than McCovey (1.02 OPS vs. McCovey’s .926 OPS). A comparison with Willie Stargell produces almost an identical result. My point is that many great sluggers have very significant left/right splits, and to the extent Berkman’s seems a bit broader, it is because he is so good from his best side. Ryan Howard’s platoon split, by the way, is more than 300 points (.753 OPS vs. 1.070 OPS). Ryan Braun’s career split is almost 200 points, and in his case it is because he is so good from his best side (1.150 OPS). Justin Morneau has over a 200 point split left/right. Jim Edmonds has a lower career OPS vs. LHP (.767) than Berkman, but again Berkman’s split seems bigger because he hits RHP so much better than Edmonds (.954). All of these guys are not switch hitters and still have big splits. And Berkman’s would look like McCovey’s, Stargell’s or Edmonds’ splits if Berkman wasn’t so extraordinary against RHP. Switch hitting isn’t necessarily the cause of the split, because in many respects Berkman’s huge split and ability to demolish RHP is fairly typical of premier lefthanded sluggers.